Stepinac football team shows who's No.1 in city after beating Cardinal Hayes in CHSFL title game at Fordham University.

It's hard enough beating Archbishop Stepinac while playing perfectly. But trying to do it the way Cardinal Hayes did on Saturday — with miscues all over the place — is definitely not going to get it done.

The Crusaders took advantage of numerous mistakes by the Cardinals to earn a 20-12 victory and their second consecutive CHSFL AAA championship on Saturday night at Fordham University.

The Crusaders were led by offensive MVP, quarterback Tyquell Fields, who had over 150 yards passing and one rushing touchdown, and defensive standout Terrell Morrison, who had two interceptions with both of them turning into Crusaders points.

“Right now, it’s an amazing feeling,” said Fields. “We worked hard all year and it is just an amazing feeling knowing that we are champions again.”

“They deserve this moment,” Stepinac head coach Mike O’Donnell said. “They have worked hard all season, they put the work in during the off-season and they earned this moment right here.”

Cardinal Hayes came in riding a wave of emotions. Junior defensive lineman Delano Cowan died just hours after the Cardinals’ quarterfinal win two weeks ago, and his teammates won an emotionally-charged semifinal last weekend, when coaches and players carried Cowan’s No. 90 jersey onto the field.

But the Crusaders jumped to an early 14-0 lead in the first quarter Saturday in large part due to the running of Antonio Giannico, who rushed for over 100 yards with one touchdown and had a late 15-yard dash to seal the victory.

“I’m speechless right now,” said Giannico. “We have worked hard all season and it just feels great to be champions again.”

The Cardinals would not go down without a fight. After trailing 17-0 going to halftime, an interception by Zahir Williams set up them up in great field position and a seven yard touchdown run by quarterback Christian Anderson made it 17-6 with 4:22 left in the third.

Stepinac responded with a 26-yard field goal by Liam Butler to go up 20-6 with 10:48 left in the game. On the ensuing Hayes position, Anderson hooked up with wide receiver Shameen Jones for a 64-yard catch and run that set up a 1-yard TD rush by Justin Covington to make it 20-12 with 8:47 left in the game.

Hayes then forced a three-and-out and got the ball back with 6:15 left and a chance to tie the game but did nothing with that opportunity.

“We played through some adversity tonight,” Hayes head coach CJ O’Neil said. “We came out slow in the first half, we came out better in the second half, but we didn’t make enough plays down the stretch to win this game.”

The Crusaders will now move on to face the St. Francis of Buffalo, who won the Monsignor Martin Association championship, in the state championship game next Saturday at Grand Island HS near Buffalo.

“It’s great to be back,” Morrison said of Stepinac’s last trip to states, “We came up short last time and we will try to do our best to make sure that it does not happen again.”